


The Moperville Circle of Superheroes

by MeliandreHaberdasher



Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Attempted non-sexual vore, F/F, F/M, Fanfic Idea Dump, M/M, Will grow into a sprawling weirdness, sleuthing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23068993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeliandreHaberdasher/pseuds/MeliandreHaberdasher
Summary: Moperville, a calm town in the midwestern United States. Moperville, a nexus of powerful unknown energy that attracts villains from all over the world. Moperville, where a group of teens found themselves imbued with powers, magics and gadgets outside their comprehension and decided to make a stand for the world. This is their story, which starts as one of their own is missing.
Relationships: Ashley/Elliot Dunkel, Grace Sciuridae/Tedd Verres
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

It is known that there are multiple universes in existence – Typically, one will associate a simple fork in the road as universe 1 and universe 2. Multiverse theory, of course, allows for a derivation of every single decision made results in a splinter universe being created or at the very least, theorized. As such, every single breath you personally take results in another universe, depending on timing, area and consciousness.

The magical bureau of the United States in one of the infinite Earths calling itself “Prime Earth” or a variant of such has started on the impossible task of categorizing universes based off various derivations.

However, in all of these universes, there are some that are always constant. For example, the universe where Tedd Verres styles himself a traumatized supervillain and has conquered the world, as well as other universes powerless before his (and more specifically his general’s) magical might. Many sought to understand how such a gentle creature such as Tedd would stoop so low – Arguments are from Elliot’s tempering presence no longer being there after an untimely death, or that project Lycanthrope was conducted to perfection, with Dr. Sciuridae not injecting his deceased daughter’s DNA in the Uryom egg. Some universes, no matter how they try to avoid the thread leading into the constant, will always end up inevitably there, supplanted by a strange force that merges it into a universe that has already occurred.

What the people categorizing this do not yet realize is that it does not matter. Whether Immortal or other, there is a consciousness that manipulates the importance of universes with a scale none can fathom, and we will be studying one of these universes here. Categorized by the magical offshoot of the FBI (in this case also called the FBI – Federal Bureau of Incantations) as Universe Sigma Upsilon Pi Epsilon Rho Theta Epsilon Rho Omikron as an Immortal calling themselves Zeus first brought it to their attention (no relation to the Zeus vowing safety towards the Mopervillian Teenagers, I’m sure), it involves several deviations to what they themselves would call the main universe.

The first being that Super-Elliot, Moperville’s foremost superhero, has gone missing. From concerned citizens to the Circle, a group of like minded teenagers working to save the world against magical threats that always seem to concentrate on Moperville for some reason, no one seems to know where their favorite hero went.

Chief among them is TG, long rumored to be Super-Elliot’s lover in face of obvious evidence that Super-Elliot only has eyes for Sarah Brown, Moperville North’s journalist in making and also cartoonist. A true chameleon magician if there ever was one, with a simple zap of their gun, the opposition becomes embarrassingly different, among other gadgets that they may have on hand. It’s rumored among the populace that there is nothing that TG can’t do other than fight hand-to-hand.

Yet, we find TG in the grasp of an aberration which came to town learning that Super-Elliot was out of commission, thinking the town’s magic reserves (also known as innocent civilians) were defenseless. That aberration hadn’t counted on the several superheroes that are mainly unknown to the public but are far too willing to step up when need be. TG was one of them – yet she merely stepped into a pickle. Aberrations with magic resistance were few and far between, but this one had just enough to resist her typical attempts at transformation shenanigans and it now held her firmly within its grasp, its jaw unhinged at 180 degrees as it was getting ready to start eating TG fully, digesting her magical potential from within.

A loud thwack is heard, and TG is somehow freed from the grasp. She rolls towards her discarded gun and sees an unknown superheroine that somehow seems familiar simply recovering from socking this aberration ten feet away.

“Dude, I can _fly_.” 

She moved towards another flying strike as TG set the transformation gun to SPFV5 and fired towards the direction of the unlikely ally. Muscles became denser, grew larger as the form of a long term martial artist assumed a position of air jousting and struck the final blow to the aberration as it tried to stand up. It reeled a few steps back while the mysterious heroine stuck a three point landing before exploding in a burst of magical energy. The heroine soon returned to her normal form of a cheerleader’s outfit that left nothing to the imagination.

“Thanks for the assist – I think it was about to eat me” the masked TG said. Still, she couldn’t get this sinking feeling that she knew her out of her mind. Something about the boldness to dive right into a dangerous situation with no regard to self-preservation reminded her of Super-Elliot yet… Well, Super-Elliot was a man, and the heroine was unquestionably a woman. One that could be described as smoking hot.

“No problem. That’s what heroes do, right? I felt you assisting me with that final blow.” The mystery girl smiled and nodded while casually floating around TG.

“Anyway, I’m TG. I’ve been on the search for Moperville’s foremost disappeared hero, Super-Elliot. Have… you seen him?” She had to ask – Normally, she’s not one to interfere directly with the goings on of the city – TG was more of a tinkerer than a brawler after all – but when her best friend from childhood disappears on her, it gets personal.

“I’m unfamiliar with the hero scene in this city. I, uh, recently moved here myself. You can call me Cheerleadra.” Somehow, she felt embarrassed to introduce herself to TG, even though deep down she knew her very well. 

It will not surprise you that Cheerleadra is the very person that TG has been searching for all this time. More importantly, she knew that TG would accept her as she is – So why was she hesitant? All she had to do is explain that she is Super-Elliot. It was that simple. Simply say the words ‘I am Super-Elliot, stuck in a woman form most of the time because magic?’ Yet opening up about this seemed bizarre, almost as unnatural as their personal abilities.

“Anyway, I should get going, and probably so should you since I think we have school tomorrow.” Cheerleadra stated, offering TG a lift as though she knew where TG lived, something that they’d never shared before. TG, still under the stress of a near-death experience, simply accepted the fact that Cheerleadra somehow knew exactly where she needed to be deposited for not getting caught by her father, who was kind of a big deal in the magical underground.

Yet, throughout the night, all she could dream of while sleeping alongside her girlfriend is getting carried by the newest superhero in town – Cheerleadra.

* * *

At school, Tedd kept glancing at Elliot’s empty seat. It had been weeks now since it’d disappeared, and while everyone was wondering why would such a mild-mannered, always ready to help young boy run away from home, Tedd could only wonder about the newest superheroine in town. He’d overheard the student body talk about how a flying cheerleader helped them out by rescuing their kitty from a tree, by giving them directions and by punching a robber literally through a tree. This coincided with what he had experienced as TG. He knew he had to talk to someone, and when someone from the Circle needed to talk to someone, they talked to Sarah Brown.

Sarah Brown, a heroine in her own right if only in her relentless pursuit of the truth with blatant disregard to her well-being and also Elliot’s ex. Some had rumored that their split had something to do with Elliot running away from home, but Tedd knew better. It was entirely unrelated and in fact, Elliot had found another person to date within a week. However, Sarah held no grudge towards her former boyfriend other than him never putting out.

Retelling his near death experience and encounter with Cheerleadra, Sarah’s eyes lit up once Tedd mentioned that the heroine knew exactly where to drop her off. Maybe they’d finally found him. Her. Elliot.

“Are you sure she doesn’t have weird psychic powers or something?” Considering their personal abilities, it was a strong possibility.

“No, I’m pretty sure, else she wouldn’t have just smacked the aberration into the next life. While I might have given her a little oomph and all, I could tell she’d done this before and she probably was waiting for me to do it. Just like, uh, Super-Elliot would. Of course, unlike Super-Elliot, she can fly, but what if that’s related to why he disappeared?” Tedd started another sentence before Sarah simply hugged him in sympathy and he fell silent.

Tedd really wanted his best friend back. Sarah wanted her ex-boyfriend back. At least, present in her life if not actually hers.

“Did you talk to Ellen? I’m pretty sure she’d want to know her brother might be back in town?” Sarah posited this extremely obvious statement, yet Tedd simply brushed it off. He wasn’t on great speaking terms with Ellen – Probably something he said, he thought. That was typically the reason why Tedd wasn’t on great speaking terms with someone. 

“I’ll try to get an interview with her. Maybe I can confirm if she’s Elliot or not.” Sarah smiled. Tedd knew if there’s anyone of them that would uncover the truth, it was her. While Sarah did not traipse around in a costume solving crimes, she also had a spell and used it to the best of her abilities as a high school newspaper writer. They all had their specialties and while Sarah wasn’t officially a member of the Circle, the organization itself was just a loosely connected group of friends so it wasn’t all that surprising that she was so interwoven with their lives.

* * *

Sarah knew that her first hint would lie with Ashley, Elliot’s new flame and yet someone who was not all that distraught when he disappeared. All she needed to do was find her, tail her and then simply overhear if she said anything. While she didn’t exactly know her all that well, she knew that the poor girl had no filter when it came to keeping secrets. If she was hiding Elliot somewhere, she would slip, and super sleuth Sarah would finally have her scoop.

Finding Ashley wasn’t exactly difficult – With Elliot gone, she had only one friend she truly hung around with, and while finding a goth smoking cloves wasn’t the easiest thing to do, finding one next to a short asian girl that blushes easily was considerably less difficult. Tailing her after she left school (and her friend) was more so – Ashley was an extremely athletic teen despite her body not exactly showing it. Both a soccer player and a ballet dancer, her flexibility was second to none and her endurance even more so. Keeping up with her would be difficult for someone in the track team, much less a reporter who’s extracurricular is art.

However, if not given to run, Ashley is perfectly followed.

It’s when she neared a street she knew very well that Sarah realized where she was going – Elliot’s house. Making sure she hid in a bush with limited visibility from outside, she activated her power: The ability to scan all her surroundings and mentally recreate them as an exact replica, and manipulating them as she saw fit if necessary. Sarah had no idea what she would find in her scan of the Dunkel house, yet she steeled herself for anything. Any errant twitch from her part could damage the replica beyond resetting, which would require dismissing the simulation and redoing it again, which would take time as each use took a lot of out her.

The ground floor had nothing out of the ordinary – although they had redecorated since Sarah was last inside this house. At least, they’d moved the TV and couches, which also made Mr. Dunkel move. He, however, was the same as he ever was – Two week old newspaper in hand, reading glasses on, and Brownie asleep at his feet. Inside the kitchen was Mrs. Dunkel, setting the table for five people, a number which immediately clicked with Sarah. _Five plates – Mr and Mrs Dunkel, Ellen, possibly Ashley. Who’s the fifth?_

Without touching anything, Sarah would find herself on top of the stairs, opening the door to the siblings’ room and… as expected, there were two women there but it’s what they were doing that shocked her. Ashley was cuddling with a girl that looked like Ellen, but obviously wasn’t Ellen as she was with Nanase. By process of elimination, she knew who it was but didn’t believe it. She frantically ran inside the simulated house looking for Ellen and found her in the bathroom, confirming her suspicions.

That woman was Elliot. Super-Elliot’s disappearance was a hoax after all. He (or was it she?) was kept hidden at home all this time, with Ashley and Ellen in on it. Most likely, the entire school was in on the situation with the exception of the student body. Yet, her powers was not proof enough to blow this story wide open. She’d realized just how dangerous her powers could be, and only used them for initial investigations or to confirm hunches. 

Tedd, however, was someone who deserved to know. The Circle, assuming they all weren’t in on it, deserved to know.

Dismissing the situation, Sarah picked up her phone, dialed Tedd’s number, and after the usual greetings simply said “I’ve just confirmed it. You were right.”

* * *

Another evening, another patrol for Cheerleadra. Being cooped up in her room all day was not exactly her idea of fun, and she’d rather be at school with her friends. However, explaining everything involving her powers somehow causing her to change sex at random intervals was not something they were ready to do. While she was aware that her previous identity as Super-Elliot was not exactly the most subtle, she knew that many just humored her for all the good she did for the city. This duplicity simply wasn’t… her.

She spotted TG in full hero garb – a much more sensible outfit than hers, yet one that exuded sexiness. A skintight material so tight that Cheerleadra could spot the girl’s nipples through the fabric at a distance, although she wondered if it wasn’t that her suit of superpowers came with enhanced vision. As Super-Elliot, all she really had was the ability to jump higher than normal and her martial arts training. This seemed more in line with… what had Justin called it? A flying brick. Like Superman!

Well, Supergirl in this case. Complete with miniskirt.

Still, knowing TG was Tedd, she wasn’t surprised that the outfit had this level of sensuality with it. After all, Tedd had long admitted that she was a big tease. A black leotard ending in boy shorts, purple thigh highs to ensure there’s some absolute territory to tease, all in the same skintight material to ensure flexibility and durability. She even had waist high light blue tactical straps to have easy access to the transformation gun and other gadgets. Of course, the superhero outfit wouldn’t be complete without a mask, and hers came out of a long lost decade – a domino mask that somehow stretched wildly past her face, culminating in horns.

Cheerleadra figured she would drop down and say hi. After all, she was partially the reason why TG was out patrolling, looking for someone that she would never find.

“Hi there, TG. What’re you doing?”

TG looked uncharacteristically dispassionate. She was not here because she wanted to be, and Cheerleadra’s appearance had, simply put, not helped.

“Looking for you, _Elliot_.”

Cheerleadra blushed. She was busted – yet she could not let all the hard work of everyone trying to conceal her identity or at least that Elliot wasn’t around, go to waste. She denied it categorically, but deep down she was kind of glad that TG was the one who saw through the charade.

“Look, I don’t know what caused you to do this, but I want to know I’d never reject you over something like this. Hell, I spend enough time as a woman as is. I just want to know why!” She pleaded with her best friend to include her in the secret. Cheerleadra sighed before sitting down on the rooftop they’d landed upon and cradled her knees.

“You know when Ellen and Nanase stopped those guys that haunted the mall as pirate ghosts, right? Well, it turned out one of them had managed to escape and wanted revenge on the two of them. I know they can take care of themselves, but I was up and they weren’t so it fell to me.”

“What’s that have to do with anything?” TG interjected, looking somewhat confused by this.

“Let me finish. So, I stop the guy, hand deliver him to the police, and think that’s that, right? Except as I’m talking to the police, I immediately transform into a woman. I couldn’t help myself. So I try to leave as fast as possible to hide this, and figure I’ll find a way to transform back or call you in the morning.” Cheerleadra continued to explain.

“Thing is, when I woke up in the morning, not only did I not change back, but I had changed overnight into someone else entirely – a goth chick. An extremely hot goth chick.” TG thought she needed to see this – in part for scientific curiosity, in another part because her best friend trying to act sexily spooky would be a treat.

“Even my personality seemed to change because I didn’t feel like going to school or patrolling. I just… was someone else entirely. I was scared! I liked being Elliot, at least, I thought I did. So, my parents asked Ellen to keep mum about it and they said they’d handle it. All they did was ask that I don’t leave the house until I can control this.” Cheerleadra concluded.

“So, why’d you leave the house then?” TG tried poking at the obvious hole in that story, but she didn’t have Sarah’s immense knack for that. That’s one of the reasons she was the scientist superhero and Sarah was the reporter tackling cases no high schooler ever should.

“I found I could control it… if I transformed into Cheerleadra. And she has more power than I ever did as Super-Elliot to boot! I erm, could spot your nip- YOU from really high. My punches hit harder than they ever did before and like I told you, I can fly.” Regardless of the predicament, she seemed quite happy about that last part of her powers. Flying was always a thing she wanted to do as Super-Elliot yet fate had not granted flight to him.

“So… does that mean Elliot’s never coming back?” TG asked the only question that mattered to her. It was nice that her best friend got the dream power she always wanted, but what TG wanted was her best friend.

“Probably. I like being Elliot, even though I think that’s what my powers were telling me – that I didn’t like being myself. It wasn’t even for good reasons to boot – I just thought I was a bad guy dumping Sarah because I loved her like a sister, or because I had the hots for someone else while I was still with her. Thing is, I realized that even when I look like other people, there’s always something that’s still me deep down. I’m Elliot, I’m always gonna be Elliot. Just that sometimes I happen to be girls that aren’t Elliot.”

TG simply hugged her friend. Support was tantamount in these times and she wanted to support her best friend who seemed to realize something about herself.

“I’m probably not gonna come back to school until next week. I’m able to control the transformations somewhat, but I want to know if I can last a whole day as Elliot before having to transform. After all, we wouldn’t want your dad to get involved, would we?” Cheerleadra laughed, they’d somehow gotten away with not informing TG’s father about their superheroic activities, yet it was improbable at this point that he wasn’t aware of the Circle and possibly Sarah’s own powers.

“Yeah, that’d be bad. He’d never leave the house again and I don’t want to think what would that mean for Grace and I.” TG smiled back at her friend.

“Streets are calm tonight? Pizza before we head home?” proposed Cheerleadra.

“I’d never say no to pizza.”

* * *

At Tedd’s house, a blue haired man is on the phone with a mysterious entity, he seems concerned, yet his calm demeanor has not flinched a single time. A tiny squirrel is spying on him, trying to understand the only side of the conversation she can hear.

“This is he (…) Are you positive? (…) Monday? (…) I’ll send an interview crew your way to corroborate the cover-up (…) Let me make the call to the school (…) You know your roles, make sure to stick to them. Verres out.”

Oh, this was a whiskey night all right. A Laphroaig 15 years night. Pouring himself the now discontinued drink, Mr. Verres mused to himself, about life, about his former love, about his son and about a group of meddling teenagers that stood to disrupt the world in the worst possible way.


	2. A Realm of Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the Salty Crackers' comic shop, Grace is extremely bored on a Sunday, which is quite uncharacteristic of the store, yet an unsuspecting predator seeks to absorb both her and Justin's power! What will happen when Justin is forced to gamble their lives on a card game... that he no longer plays?

Salty Crackers comics and games – Ground Zero of all geekery in Moperville, a place frequented by practically everyone who has a tangential interest in hobbyist activities and staffed by people who, even if they were not paid to be there, would find themselves drawn to its contents regardless with perhaps one exception.

Grace Sciuridae, partial human shapeshifter, was contemplating what exactly was there to do. Sundays were never a really busy day compared to Wednesdays (New comic day), Fridays (Friday Night card game tournaments) and Saturdays (whatever tournaments were ran for games that weren’t that one on Friday Night), and while there were usually some sort of miniature wargaming match going on, today was the rare exception where no one was showing up. Fortunately, the store closed at 5 o’clock, so she wouldn’t have to be there long. Still, she’d already swept the floor, cleaned the tables, fronted the new comics section, dusted off the lesser rare but still valuable comics up on the wall above the new comics, placed a new box under the single packs for all the card games, reordered the singles by set and collection number, grew her bust, shrank herself, grew taller, shrunk her hips, let her antennae out, realized how bad that would be if someone caught her and morphed out of them, all she was doing was lean on the counter, head in hands staring at the entry door for anything to happen.

That’s when her co-worker, friend, and assistant manager Justin came in.

“Wow, it is _dead_ in here. Also, clean.” Justin was not dressed for the job, not that dressed for the job meant anything here since “casual and clean” was the order of the day.

“Yes, I got a little stir-crazy and cleaned everything, re-ordered the singles, and all that kind of stuff!” It was difficult for Grace to not be bubbly in most times, but she had the restraint of a squirrel when it came to showing her emotions. If she was sad, you would know – If she was happy, you would know physically. Her relief at having conversation here was palpable.

“It’s never massively busy on Sundays, which is why it’s a one person job. Still, that you had enough time to dust the old comics is proof positive nobody’s been around.” Justin paused to admire Grace’s handiwork. Of course, being able to levitate using telekinesis made dusting stuff easy. “Can you show me the singles? I’m hoping someone brought in a Miscellaneous Sorcery.” A budget card for a budget deck that had little odds of winning, but Justin hadn’t built that deck for consistency. After all, as a judge, he wouldn’t be participating in this store’s tournaments, and he did not have the desire to attend the state’s open championships.

What he had was the desire to prove a point.

Grace handed him the newly reorganized binder of Standard play, and let him paw through its newfound reorganization.

“Did you reorganize the binder?” Grace nodded. “Wow, you really had a lot of time. Let’s see here… flip everything on over to the last page… YES!” He’d hoped someone would bring in another one, as that’d make the full playset. He carefully motioned the cards to Grace, and let her pull it out of the binder. After all, it was one of the rules he’d suggested to his uncle when he took over the card-playing subsection of the shop, and it’s resulted in a lot less shenanigans being attempted by certain unscrupulous folk.

“What are you planning to do with that anyway? I keep hearing George saying this card is bad.” Grace unceremoniously crossed her arms, questioning Justin’s enthusiasm in reaction to what she remembered her wiser co-worker said.

“Shut George up.” Justin said it with a malicious streak in his voice, one that perhaps denoted more personal involvement in whatever argument these two were having. To call them friends would be a lie, but they did accept each other’s existence. Grace, however, knew more about this situation than she let on – George had a massive crush on Justin. Justin often lamented the lack of dating options, yet there had been one in front of him all this time. Of course, before this year, perhaps it would have been dubious. However, a green haired man sort of fell into his lap, and Justin took the initiative. Both responded well, and they were in a relationship of sorts, the reality of Luke’s college studies often interfering in their attempts at romance.

Still, he saw something bizarre in the binder – a card that shouldn’t be there. The colors didn’t match, it didn’t seem like anything legitimate. It was just… out of place. Did Grace make an error? Not possible, the girl was so meticulous, she’d have noticed instantly.

“Hey Grace, what’s this doing here?” Justin pointed the card out, but respected the rules he was often having to enforce so he didn’t touch it. Grace looked at it and simply concluded it had to have been a proxy – who’d even heard of a card simply called Trap…

With a flash of light, Grace fell into the ground, a maw opening beneath her, entrapping her within a 10 foot deep pit filled with spikes. She instantly transformed into her base form, using her squirrel agility and telekinesis to escape the deadly part of the trap, but when she attempted to bounce back to find out who had attempted on her life, she found an even stronger magic barrier awaiting her. She tried clinging to the walls, but they were so muddy and soft that even her claws struggled in doing so.

Justin immediately turned around to find who could even do such a thing. He picked up his phone to text other members of the circle, namely TG because they were likely the most likely to know what was going on, plus it was his girlfriend that was trapped but before he could send the text, a beam of force struck his hand.

“We’ll be having none of _that_.” A figure erupted from behind one of the stands. All Justin could discern was that it was some sort of… spider-clown? At least, it had spider-like features, and dressed like an actual clown, enough that they were in pajamas? What was that type of French clown again…?

“I am Pierrot and-”

That’s what it was!

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be kicking you out of the store.” Grace could rescue herself if the magic barrier wasn’t in the way, and Justin knew it. Even with his lack of experience against aberrations, he knew this opponent was part of them. This was someone who’d sacrificed their humanity for the sake of living just a little bit longer.

“Because if you do, she dies.” Well, that put an end to Justin’s attempt at solving this through violence. He’d rather do it peacefully, but when someone initiates violence, you sometimes have to be violent back.

“What do you want then?” Justin gritted his teeth, not exactly liking this situation. Whereas Pierrot grinned.

“It’s simple – We play a game. I win, I drain your powers… and hers. You win, and I let her go.” Convinced he had the upper hand, the clown spider was simply doing card tricks with his 6 hands just to flex on his powerless opponent.

“What game?” Justin had to ask – in his mind he ran the possibilities. Considering the kind of place he attacked, it must be a game they carried, yet he doubted it was going to be Magickal Gatherings. After all, with the way he was acting, why would he target a store reknowned for its Magickal Gatherings players? Sure, they’d never fostered any Pro Tour caliber players… except one. He forgot his name though.

He simply flashed what looked like an orange and black portal, and Justin immediately knew what that was. Card King Duel – It used to be popular at Salty Crackers, but a lot of people fell off and were now playing Magickal Gatherings instead.

“And if I refuse?” Justin had to ask – although in the back of his mind, he was already smirking. Justin was very deep into that game as a younger boy, and he hadn’t forgotten any of the game’s intricacies. Plus, he actually had kept his deck intact.

“I’ll drain her magic, and you wouldn’t be able to stop me even with your powers.” Pierrot started cackling even after this. “You see, I’ve planned it all! I’ll get both of your magic and then who’s going to stop me when I can punch them through a mountain or just shapeshift to whatever I wish! I knew Salty Crackers had some powerful users but I hit the jackpot here!”

“Then, sure, let’s play.” Justin looked deadly serious – Their lives were on the line here. He grabbed the emergency deck he’d kept in case someone wanted to play and no one else was around. The store had a few of these in order to keep people from just leaving and fostering friendly game environments, but few of the employees knew how to play all the games. Justin, however, did.

Once the shuffle and cut part of it started, they both sat at a table, with the clown starting with a classic opening gambit. High power thwacker, in attack mode, with one card face down. First player cannot attack, therefore it went to Justin’s turn.

Justin looked at his hand and suddenly recoiled in horror. This wasn’t the deck he thought this was – This was the alternate win condition deck. He’d built a deck based off alternate summoning methods but this was not it. This was ye old collect the five pieces of Axeido and instantly win the game. This hadn’t been efficient in ages, ever since they banned some of its best fetchers. He had another employee try to do something with it since he still played the game, but now his entire advantage was shot. At least he had creature destruction.

“One face-down creature in defense, and that’s it for me.”

“Oh? You seem disappointed? Perhaps you thought you’d have something a bit more… ABC?”

What? How did this clown know which deck he was going to play?

“Oh, I know everything about this store, Justin Tolkiberry. I’ve been scouting this area for a month now, and made sure that your deck would be otherwise… indisposed.”

Grace, in the meantime, was simply hovering in the hole, cheering on Justin. Levitating herself didn’t cost too much magic energy, but eventually, it would be more taxing as time went by.

“I’ll attack your monster.” Justin flipped the Manslaying Mantis, which would destroy the monster in question. “Ah, you know, I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all!” Pierrot unveiled his trap card – Powerlessness. It negated all flip effects until it was gone. Justin simply growled. He’d be left wide open unless something happened next turn.

Justin’s turn was otherwise uneventful as he drew a card, placed two on the back row, and ceded his turn over. Not a lot he could do there. He needed to cycle through his deck fast so he could get the pieces of Axeido, but his hand was probably the worst hand possible for that. With his luck so far, they’d be at the tail end of the deck.

Fortunately for him, Pierrot’s hand didn’t seem to be much better, all he did was draw and attack. Several life points down. 4 more attacks like that and he’d lose. Justin went again – a piece of Axeido! Only 4 left. Still, he couldn’t exactly play it. So, he left it in his hand and ceded his turn. The clown sacrificed his own card for an even bigger thwacker – 3 hits and he’s down, plus he’d lose a card each turn it hit his life points directly. This is going to be a problem. Justin figured he had enough cards to recycle any pieces he’d lose but if he was kept at less than 5 cards in hand all game, he’d never gather all the pieces.

Still, he was struck, 2 more hits and a card lost. At least it wasn’t random and he could choose. He sighed, and discarded an Eject Button. In his mind, he didn’t need two at the time, because one of them was on the field. He drew the classic. Hand Destruction – It’d get rid of his piece of Axeido, but at least he’d get back to 5 cards, and go through his deck. He discarded the remainder of his hand, and drew 5 new cards.

He was in a lot better position than prior, but this could be a problem. He drew 2 more pieces, but had to discard 1. Justin believed his fellow employee had done his best in making this deck and he made sure to read the cards as much as possible but this was not something he could play automatically, and it showed. Every single card had to be played in precise order as to ensure his victory.

‘Classic T formation, at least that’ll save me for a bit, and if he takes the bait, I’ll be safe for another turn.’ Justin placed one card down in his spell area, and one card face down, ending his turn.

“You know you won’t win unless you attack me, right? Maybe you WANT to see her dead?” Pierrot did his best to be an insufferable asshole. After all, who plays well when infuriated, and insinuating a friend as close as any of the circle would willingly want another dead was sure to do so. Justin, however, read through the obvious taunt. “No matter, I’ll attack your monster, and it doesn’t even get its flip effect.”

Justin smirked and simply flipped over his trap card – Surprise Trampoline. Both cards involved in combat were bounced to each players’ hand… with no resulting effects.

“Shut up and play.” was all Justin could say. Meanwhile, Grace audibly cheered over Justin’s move. The clown spider had no choice but to abdicate his turn. Justin drew… a monster. Hm, well, at least that could come in handy.

“Reincarnation – I’ll toss this creature to the graveyard, and grab the third piece.” Justin continued reading his own cards. 3 pieces and one trap card that had far too much text for it not to be important. ‘Can only use this if you have 10 or more cards in your graveyard… yadda yadda yadda… when attacked… negate attack and...’

Justin thought this was his best chance.

“I’ll put this face down and end my turn.” If he was destined to save Grace from the trap, everything would turn out fine. Pierrot drew a card.

“Okay, show’s over. Time for me to become REAL powerful! Early Grave to bring back this monster, I’ll normal summon this one, and that’ll allow me to Harmony Summon the Clown Skull Dragon!” Justin immediately internally apologized to Grace for not knowing what the hell a Harmony Summon was, or that there was a card named the Clown Skull Dragon. “And now, the Clown Skull Dragon’ll attack you directly, meaning I win the game.”

“Hold it!” Justin flipped his card dramatically. “Zombie Defense Force. I’ll bring back the card I discarded earlier so I at least have a monster on the field.”

“Zombie Defense Force, no one uses that anymore! ‘causes everything it’s tied to to die, after all. Especially with my Clown Skull Dragon’s effect.”

Justin bent down to read the card… destroy one face-up spell or trap card, once per turn. Aw hell… yes.

“Okay, well, my D.D. Tank still hit the field, so it’s special effect activates. The top five cards of my deck are banished, but all the creatures go in my hand instead.”

Pierrot suddenly realized that he screwed up – 5 chances for him to finish Axeido. Justin looked the clown dead in the face and smirked.

“Let’s see what I get then. Card 1, spell – it’s out. Card 2… hey, there’s the 4th piece. Card 3… a trap card, so that gets removed. Card 4… another creature and card 5.”

Justin flipped it over nonchalantly, as though he knew what the card was.

The Heart of Axeido. The fifth piece.

Justin slammed his hand down onto the table showing he had all five pieces, ending the game. With his victory, the enchantment preventing Grace from escaping the trap vanished. She flew to Pierrot’s deck and slashed it in half with her claws, the cards soon vanishing in a puff of magic smoke as the clown spider sat there, mortified about how much he had screwed up. Two of the most physically enhanced heroes in Moperville, and he had just given them a license to beat him up badly.

Grace, fortunately for her own innocence and also her cleaning job, simply grabbed Pierrot by the collar and hoisted him up in the air, powerless to wiggle through the super strong squirrel alien’s grip. Justin called the authorities in charge of magical affairs, and that was that. Everything would be smooth, and none would be the wiser about the magical card game battle that occurred on that day.

“Hey Grace, how’d you know his deck was the source of his power?” Justin asked – He wasn’t exactly aware of Grace’s extraordinary senses, though he had an inkling about them.

“Well, the card that trapped me was a card from this game, so I figured his deck was probably actual magic. Besides, I wanted to hurt him but not... hurt him.” Grace turned to Justin. “And how did you know you’d get your win condition with that combo?”

“I didn’t.” Grace shot him an icy glare. “Okay, okay. I knew I had good odds because my deck was pretty thin by that time since I’d ditched an entire hand, and Card King Duel’s deck sizes are 40, not 60.”

Grace remained unconvinced.

“Anyway, we should probably go back to Tedd’s house and inform him of what happened here. With her being attacked a few days ago and now this, I’m starting to think something’s happening here that we need to watch out for.” Justin agreed as they both left the store, with Justin taking a small look back to confirm the pitfall that trapped Grace was indeed just a magical effect that was no longer in place. Otherwise, he’d have a hard time explaining this to his uncle.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Tedd’s house, a blue haired agent is pacing over a report he just got from his underlings. This would be easy to cover-up, but civilians got involved this time. One of them being under his protection. The other? One of the most meddlesome pieces in all of this Moperville tapestry. Everyone already knew he had some sort of power, although according to the report, none of it was used here.

Still, a Card King Duel deck that was actually magic. This was getting ridiculous and dangerous as it reminded him of an incident years prior that he had to provide a massive cover-up for. Enough to get the position of chief - The Gygaxtomachy. Yet what was happening seemed like a repeat of that incident – Gaming supplements enhanced with magic, a marked rise in aberrations… and a member of his family that was directly involved.

This would need to be nipped in the bud. He couldn’t control the aberrations – they would do what they want unless killed, making the only other controllable entity in this scenario…

The Circle.

He would need to stop his son and his friends from exposing their powers further. Even if it meant using the full force of his magical might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, since Dan changed Magic: the Gathering to Magickal Gatherings, had to finangle a Yu-Gi-Oh! analogue that was about as subtle a name as that - hence, Card King Duel.
> 
> I can safely say there was an attempt.


	3. Meddling Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen and Nanase, instead of going the superhero route, open a private eye agency! Unfortunately for them, that means they'll also get involved in the increasing sightings of abominations in Moperville, and the machinations of one Edward Verres.

Ellen couldn’t believe they’d done it – Moperville’s first private detective agency, ushered in mainly out of good deeds and a good word here and there. Both Nanase and her were looking at their handiwork and just how little it took for what was essentially just a place for people to meet them in an official capacity. Both would still attend college in the fall, but it was a lot safer for them to have an actual office. Of course, they kept the name that had been attributed to them – Teen Girl Detectives. How else would anyone find them?

They finished putting in the actual desk, some furniture to give the appearance of a serious office and a file cabinet for good measure, as well as a couch and some chairs. Just needed the internet and an actual computer and everything’d be ready.

“I never thought we’d open an office or anything, but seeing as we’ll be in Moperville for a good while, makes sense to do so, right?” Ellen said as Nanase cradled her waist while she leaned into her girlfriend.

“Remember that since we’re opening this, we need to actually start charging people just to keep the lights on. No more freebies. Hopefully people weren’t just relying on our goodwill...” Nanase couldn’t help it – She was worried, especially since her friends also took up the mantle of helping their community, albeit through superheroics rather than good ol’ fashioned detective work like they did. Doubly so since Ellen’s brother was one of them, and so was her cousin. Sarah’s reporter antics made the Moperville North High Chronicle (named because a Chronicle is more epic than ‘news’, ‘post’ and ‘times’) the local newspaper to watch for in-depth reports of teenage problems in Moperville, enough that the Moperville Library started collecting it as a periodical. As far as Nanase knew, the only person out of their group that wasn’t exactly superhero material was Ashley, and even then considering her talent for ballet and soccer that bordered on the supernatural, it was more that she didn’t want to than because she couldn’t.

“Aren’t _we_ relying on Ms. Gessell’s goodwill? We’re barely paying anything for this space!” Ellen poked her girlfriend in the stomach while grinning. It was true – While small, renting this office space should have cost double what they were paying per month. Turned out, helping find Ms. Gessell’s cat during that catnapping spree allowed the two of them to negotiate an extremely good deal for them, with very few downsides for the detective couple.

Still, just as they were about to make out, someone knocked on their door. The man was in his early thirties, showing some signs of aging but nothing out of the ordinary except some early onset gray hairs, which was only noticed as otherwise his hair was a dark brown. He looked like, and indeed was, a middle manager for a mall outlet. Nanase opened the door and he came in, looking around like a stranger entering a new place.

“Hey there, we’re the teen girl detectives. What can we do for you?” A solid introduction by Nanase. The man audibly gulped, looking heavily stressed about something.

“Uh, hi, I’m Simon Pereira and I’m the manager of the computer section over at Ultimate Purchase.” Then, he clammed up. Nanase tilted her head while Ellen slowly realized she was still heavily leaning onto Nanase and thus overtly slipped away.

“We can’t help ya if you don’t tell us what you need us for, y’know.” Ellen may have been brash here, but she went closer to the man to sort of usher him onto a chair. Whatever he wanted the two of them to do, it should be discussed while sitting down. He gladly took the chair that was offered to him, while the two detectives sat down behind the desk.

“I… I think I’m being stalked.” Simon was audibly shaken. Whatever it was, he seemed outright afraid of what he saw. “For about a week now, I’ve been feeling observed whenever I leave work, like there’s someone that’s out to get me. We had kind of an awkward firing two weeks ago, and uh, I’m afraid there’s gonna be retaliation, of the physical kind. As in, he’s jump me and beat my ass even though I didn’t fire him! And he’s really tall, too, so I’m scared!”

“Isn’t that what the police is for?” Ellen knew very well that the police didn’t necessarily take it seriously. Not that Moperville police was bad per se, but they were a lot better at reacting to things than being preemptive about something – Which is why the Teen Girl Detectives were so popular as they listened, then acted.

“I already went to them, but they said unless I could be sure it’s who I think it was and filed a civil suit, they couldn’t do anything.” Simon lowered his head. Even he wasn’t sure about this – but it couldn’t hurt to believe him here. Nanase figured the both of them could take on whatever it was, and unless they were dealing with a super magical spy, they certainly had the tools between the two of them to catch whoever it was in the act. Ellen looked at her and nodded, and she did it right back.

“We’ll take the case. We’ll need your phone number so we have a way to contact you and inform you of what we find.” The two of them smiled. This was their first official case.

* * *

The plan was simple – Nanase would be in hiding alongside Simon’s path, while overseeing the area in fairy form. Ellen would simply be tailing the stalked man as he went from work to home in summer’s late dusk. If they found someone was actually stalking Simon, Ellen’d block him off while Nanase rushed to her to take him down two on one if Ellen wasn’t enough. They’d done this too many times together to not know what to do.

Simon left work, looking like a train had ran over him. Due to a shortage of staff, he had to handle the returns on what could be faulty merchandise, but as he didn’t have the time to inspect everything, could have simply been attempts at minor fraud. He slouched towards home, moving slowly without even caring that, indeed, there was a shadow looming behind him.

Nanase flew high above the dejected man, with a fairy’s eye view of the action, and saw that a tall man was indeed following Simon. He was being careful, too, ducking out of view or making sure that even if Simon turned around, he wouldn’t see his face. A lot more careful than a disgruntled ex-employee would be in this situation. Nanase, having identified the culprit, flew down to Ellen and gave her his description – The man had a longcoat and a bandana on, and would be ducking into alleys or behind houses if Simon turned around. Ellen nodded and started to move, seeing if she couldn’t trap him and hold him until Nanase’s real body got there.

Meanwhile, she had to relay the information to Simon without panicking him. That would prove difficult as Ellen had no idea what to write - ‘Hey, you’re being stalked, pretend I didn’t send you this text’ didn’t seem like it would have the desired effect.

Yet that’s what she went with, and Simon sweat enough buckets to drop his phone when the confirmation was made. He bent over to pick it up and, out of panicked clumsiness, tripped over himself to land flat on his back, doing a beautiful 180 spin to go from leaning forward to looking outright pathetic. He looked himself over to see if he’d twisted anything, but no, just the physical pain of hitting a hard surface, and the mental pain of looking foolish doing so.

Simon picked up his phone and brushed himself off from whatever dirt, gravel and what have you was found on the ground. While patting himself down, he spotted a man wearing a long coat that was quickly cut off by Ellen, and decided he wanted no parts of what was about to happen in that alley they ducked into.

Over all this action, Nanase’s fairy was kept hovering over the alleyway as a sort of beacon for her to find her girlfriend and give her some help in apprehending this man. However, the action would start with or without her. The interloper tried to throw sand he’d kept in his pocket for just these types of emergencies. How was he to know that he was fighting an 18 year old martial artist with twice the life experience? Ellen carefully avoided the attempt at blinding her, but was out of position to defend properly against the stranger’s followup front kick. Sure, she learned how to at least mitigate damage by rolling with the hit, but that kick outright hurt even though the man’s form was outright atrocious and bizarre. His leg seemed to extend as though the ligaments weren’t there. She thought it was more like a whip than any sort of human leg.

Which made Ellen even angrier.

“You’re not even human, are you?” She did not need to ask, but keeping him here was of the utmost importance. She could defend herself – Simon, the intended target, could not.

“Oho! You could tell that much! Time for a change of plans! I’ll be dinin’ on you, first!” This is where the long coat went off, and while Ellen was not surprised by what she saw, she was, however, thoroughly disgusted. This was an abomination in both looks and acts. The man’s torso looked rotten from the inside, with a set of eyes and face coming out of his abs. His body looked on its last legs, having been consumed by the parasite thoroughly. The green-haired girl almost felt insulted that she even managed to get hit by someone looking this destroyed, but remembered that the blow was likely magic at work.

However, she had magic of her own.

“Take this!” A quick green beam came out of her left hand, a simple FV5 transformation beam. Nothing fancy, just something to test his magical resistance with, and like she feared, not only did he not transform into a sexy woman, he simply brushed it of and tried to launch a haymaker at her. Lunging forward and leaving himself wide open allowed for Ellen to counter with a gut punch to the abs, which was the parasite’s actual face.

This, however, was planned by the assailant.

With an audible chomp, Ellen’s hand was buried in the man’s abdominal mouth with teeth marks starting to penetrate Ellen’s skin. She let loose a shout of pain, trying to shake off the man’s abdominal mouth to no avail. With Ellen having one arm trapped, it was difficult for her to defend against the man’s two fisted barrage, coupled with a headbutt. Whenever she’d try to get away, he’d just pull her from the arm, and repeat anew.

Until he felt the force of a heavyweight punch in the back of his neck, which knocked him away from Ellen. Wondering what could hit him so hard, he turned around – and there was Nanase, fairy to her side, in a shoot boxing stance. Except she was way outside of her range – Even his limited eyesight showed she didn’t have arms that were six feet long almost fully extended. Ellen, free from the abdominal mouth, looked her arm over to see if there was any lasting problems like a tooth stuck in there or anything. Other than light bleeding where the skin was torn apart, everything was fine. Good thing she’d experienced worse during her second life, else she might be worried. Still, not exactly an ideal situation, but at least Nanase was there now.

“Be careful Nanase, he’s got a face in his stomach so don’t punch him there!” Ellen figured her girlfriend would appreciate the advance warning, though she did not seem interested in going anywhere close to the villain’s range. She’d instead send the Fairy to do combat in her place – A foot tall powerhouse that could project punches at a distance. Nanase’s punches, arguably one of the physically strongest persons in Moperville at any point in its existence.

“I’ve got this Ellen, make sure to watch my sides.” Nanase’s plan was genius – Ellen watches her body while she’s in the fairy, smacking the abomination into next week. Doubly so when Ellen could distract him with stronger beams that, while he could shrug off the transformation, it ate away at its magical energy – the very same energy that was sustaining its control over the host, which had long been snuffed out of life. Even with its supernatural agility, the villain kept being battered by heavyweight punches from a creature too light to even land on the scale, and beams that while it had no idea what they did, knew that it would transform it into something ELSE.

For the beast, it was a battle for survival – Even if the girls had no intentions on killing it, the fact of the matter is that it had selected Simon due to the ease of feasting on his pathetic existence. Having to face two of the strongest heroes in Moperville was not something it counted on, and the fact that there was no easy escape option made it that much more desperate. Sensing immense magical power coming from Ellen, it made a desperate attempt at lunging out of its host, which outright fell apart like a blood drained marionette. The abomination’s grotesque, shriveled purple skin-like substance extended as it floated rapidly towards Ellen as Nanase’s fairy was too late to react.

Ellen fired a beam, and the abomination froze into place, paralyzed by the amount of energy necessary to resist the spell, as Nanase finally reacted by having her fairy punch its spine into the ground, breaking it, and the abomination, in half.

“That could have gone better.” Ellen dusted herself off while Nanase reintegrated her own body, hiding the fairy doll in her purse while the abomination lay on the ground, ripped in half, and its unfortunate host in several body parts. Both girls did their best to avert their eyes from the scene.

“Yes. Yes it could have. At least Simon’s safe now, and we’re none the worse for wear. Let me see your arm?” Ellen acquiesced her girlfriend’s request and showed her. It looked no better than an interrupted dog bite but there could be problems if it was infectious, or was a way to reproduce from the abominations. While Nanase had experience with one, she’d been told that there are as many variations of abominations in the world as there are human beings. As to who had told her that? She couldn’t remember.

“Yeah, uh, I think we might need to call it in. There’s, like, a body.” Ellen astutely said once they’d left the alley. She looked a bit blemish, the sight of the corpse still fresh in her mind and downplaying the situation was one of the ways she coped.

“Worse, we might need to call it in to my _uncle_.” The inflection with which Nanase said that showed there was no love lost between the two. Ellen left up a finger to ask why, but Nanase cut her off. “My mom thinks he did something to make my aunt disappear, and you know how he tried to get us to stop using our magical powers, right?” Ellen could do nothing but nod as Nanase called the number she dreaded.

Within minutes, Edward Verres arrived on the scene and cordoned off the area with a detective’s long coat, no doubt filled with magical implements befitting one of the most powerful and influential magic users in the entire United States. He’d give the girls a cursory scan and motioned to Ellen.

“Ellen, return home, take this poultice and apply it with pressure on the wound. If anyone asks, you were bit by a wild dog. That should eliminate all traces of residual magic the abomination might have left in you.” Ellen winced – This did not look hygienic nor anywhere near comfortable, but if Edward Verres says something about magic, you listened. Both girls motioned to leave, but before they could be at a good distance between the alley and themselves, Edward Verres spoke up.

“Nanase, stay.” Ellen was puzzled as to why she needed to go but Nanase needed to stay. Was this a way to separate them? She doubted that with the animosity between the two families’ heads, it was an attempt by Nanase’s mom to separate them. While she “approved” of the relationship as a playful, practice relationship. However, for the both of them, it was far more serious than she was willing to admit.

“If I stay, she stays.” Nanase would defend her girlfriend to the death. And beyond, if there was such a thing.

“This is a familial matter.” Edward Verres had no intentions of screwing around. He cared not about their relationship – Let them be together, but let them stay ignorant of the coming storm, and the more ignorant everyone else was about it, the better he could do his work.

“...you _do_ know she’ll just repeat whatever you say to me, right?” Ellen attempted to diffuse the tense situation by simply stating the truth. Nanase kept no secrets from Ellen, and vice versa, at least not since she first came out and they ended up together. Edward looked outright livid because he couldn’t threaten either of them. He owed at least this much to Noriko, his ex-wife and Nanase’s aunt.

“Fine.” Edward Verres motioned them to get in the alley instead. “We’ll be safe from prying eyes and ears here, and the Bureau won’t be here to cleanup for an hour.” Part of the couple wished it would be faster – the corpse had been left to decompose as part of the parasite abomination’s hunger, and its smell was not exactly the most pleasant.

“All right – It’s simple. I want you to stop messing around in the magical world.” The collective what of the couple could almost be heard over the silent barrier established by the senior wizard.

“Even if it’s only temporarily, you have to stop using magic out in the open. There’s a storm coming to Moperville, and I don’t want any of your friends or you two to get swept up in it.” Edward Verres had not yet placed down an ultimatum, but it certainly sounded like he would, the two girls thought. Still, what would they do with their detective agency without their spells? While Ellen’s spell didn’t exactly help in their work, Nanase’s fairy was key to several solved cases.

“Wait, why would we stop? We can help you! The entire superhero community can help you! It’s not like we haven’t stopped any significant threats.” Nanase had never run away from a fight, and she would not do so here either.

“While both of you are physically capable, can you say your mother could take an abomination in a fight without serious injuries? How about you, Ellen?” Edward knew exactly where to strike, and both girls looked at each other, unsure of the answer to that question.

“Just the other day, Justin and Grace were targeted by one of these abominations. Another roamed until some of the superhero community, as you say, managed to stop it. That’s three abominations in less than a week. When I say that whatever’s coming will target your loved ones, I mean it.” Edward Verres’ tone was neutral all the way through. He meant business. He wouldn’t secure compliance through magical coercion – This was against his principles and would get even him in trouble with the Bureau, but if he needed to flex some magical might later down the line, so be it. He’d rather it not come to that, however, and thus kept the implication alive, rather than go in with it.

“This is out of your league. In fact, I _will_ be calling in reinforcements for this, and they will not tolerate this circle of yours. I’ve been given leeway from the Bureau as to how I handle Moperville itself due to it’s special status in the world of the paranormal, but you? You’re effectively vigilantes when it comes to anything magical. If they see you interfere, they _will_ arrest or kill you, and I will not be able to do anything about it.”

Ellen and Nanase weren’t afraid – They could take whatever life threw at them, but they were especially concerned. They knew Tedd’s father worked as part of the government and in magic, but not that he knew everything about their friends’ nocturnal activities. Not only did he knew, but he let it slide out of nepotism? That was… uncharacteristic of what they knew about him.

“...what did you mean by this is a familial matter?” Nanase had to ask – after all, that’s how he framed it.

“The last time an event like this happened, your aunt – my ex-wife – disappeared without a trace. We looked everywhere for her. We contacted paranormal agents from the Agency that were outside the country, but nothing. To this day, we can’t even confirm if she’s dead or alive. And she was an experienced monster hunter, more capable than any magic-user I’ve known.”

Nanase audibly gasped, and Ellen reacted by giving her a tight hug. She’d been told by her mother that her aunt was dead, and that Edward Verres was the cause. Yet, if he was telling the truth here, that changed everything – Her aunt could be alive. Yet that something this serious was coming to Moperville…

“Well, if you know us, you know how we’re going to react to something like that.” Ellen said, grinning. Edward knew it was only a matter of time before these adult teens would defy his warning. Still, he did his part – he warned them. If it comes to a confrontation between the Bureau and them, well, at least it’d be better than if the abominations got them since the Bureau will at least try not to kill.

“Ellen’s right. If there’s anything we can do to keep people safe, we will.” Nanase didn’t want to show defiance, but she also couldn’t lie – If there was anything she could do to keep someone safe, she would. They both would, and so would all their friends.

“The best thing you can do is comply to my request.”

“...except that.”

‘Teenagers.’ Edward Verres could only sigh after hearing that. He brought them out of the alley and wished them good luck on their detective agency. They’d need it once his reinforcements came to town.


End file.
